Dorothea Becker

Dorothea Becker (* around 1535 in Kirchhundem ; † in May 1609 in Bilstein (Lennestadt) ) was acquitted of being a witch due to her steadfastness .

Bilstein around 1730. Drawing by Renier Roidkin

origin

Dorothea Becker comes from an old Kirchhundem family, which is documented as early as 1462. The wealth of the family is evident from the 1536 treasury register . Hans Becker, Dorothea's father, had to pay four guilders, the second highest tax amount in the village. This corresponded to almost 1/7 of the tax income of the total of 24 taxpayers. It is not known when the parents married. It can be assumed that their marriage was around 1530. Dorothea's mother was Ottilia N., she died in 1575. Hans Becker had already died in 1565. His widow's name appears in its place in this year's treasury register. The Becker family was in bondage to Herr von Plettenberg zu Engstfeld . From this were released from 1567 to 1570 alongside her sisters Dorothea Gertrud, Agnes and Stine, all with the official Bilstein local yeomanry were married. In addition to the sisters mentioned, Dorothea had two brothers, Adolf and Jost. Adolf Becker took over the parental inheritance in Kirchhundem; Jost later appears in Kirchhundem as Jost Kopmann (Kaufmann), which suggests that he married into a Kaufmann family, which, however, does not appear under this name in the treasury register of 1565.

Around 1560 Dorothea Becker married Franz Abhardt (also sometimes referred to in the literature by von der Hardt), the son of the Bilstein judge Martin Abhardt. The marriage had six children: Valentin, Eberhard, Friedrich, Elisabeth, Gertrud and Dorothea. Her husband was one of the Bilstein judges in the 1560s, and in 1570 he described himself as a judge for the first time, in this position he initially worked alongside the older judge Valentin Landknecht, who was in office until 1576. The Bilsteiner Amtsdrost Kaspar von Fürstenberg also accepted Franz Abhardt as clerk in 1572. In addition to these public offices, Franz Abhardt knew how to increase his private property through money and property transactions.

Accusation of sorcery

Bilstein around 1730. Drawing by Renier Roidkin.

In 1575 Dorothea Becker came under suspicion of sorcery . Johann Fronen from Saalhausen , with whom she had a dispute over a monetary claim in 1570 and who himself was imprisoned and subjected to torture for alleged sorcery, accused Dorothea of ​​being a "participant in magic, riding through the air, witch dances" etc. He revoked these accusations in court, on June 3, 1575 he was finally executed. Dorothea was now anxious to free herself from the accusation of sorcery in the room through a judicial process. Her brother Adolf, her brother-in-law Heinrich Stamm from Emlinghausen and her husband Franz pleaded with Drosten Kaspar von Fürstenberg for her.

Judge Valentin Landknecht behaved strangely on a scheduled trial day. He demanded an affidavit from the summoned witnesses that Dorothea was innocent, instead of asking them the prescribed question whether they believed in their innocence. Since the witnesses could not take the oath from their own science, the trial was inconclusive. Dorothea's advocates complained to Kaspar von Fürstenberg and managed to get the Attendorn geographer Eberhard Halffinner to take the place of judge Valentin Landknecht . At the now scheduled hearing on July 19, 1575, Dorothea Becker swore her innocence and her neighbors the belief in the truth of her oath. Thereupon the court recognized that Dorothea had rid herself of the accusation of the executed Johann Fronen and of bad gossip according to canon law and issued the Documentum purgationis.

New allegations and rumors

Kaspar von Fürstenberg

Despite being cleared of the charge of sorcery, Dorothea Becker apparently continued to talk to her fellow men. Testimony to this is a trial that she led in 1587 against Cord Knopen, the tailor Kaspars von Fürstenberg, because he accused her of witchcraft with reproach. On September 9, 1587, Kaspar von Fürstenberg held the matter in court, but no judgment has survived. Part of the rumors revolved around the death of the wife of Kaspar von Fürstenberg, who died on June 1, 1587 at the age of 40, five months after the birth of their eighth child. There was a rumor that the “Richtersche” (d. I. Dorothea Becker) had poisoned Kaspar's wife. Kaspar von Fürstenberg seems to have reacted very cautiously to these rumors at first.

In 1590 there was the first massive outbreak of the witch craze in the Bilstein office . That year 28 people were charged with witchcraft, the next eight and 1592 eleven. In the case of statements made under torture, Greta uf dem Hufgen from Silberg accused Dorothea Becker and her sister Agnes Stamm from Emlinghausen of magic in 1590. Hans Totter from Silberg also accused Dorothea Becker of being a sorceress under the same circumstances. In a comparison between Hans Totter and the two women on June 19, 1590, the latter stuck to his accusations. On July 16, 1590, Agnes Stamm was arrested in Bilstein and embarrassedly interrogated a day later. On July 30, 1590, she was probably burned at the place of execution near the old field near Kirchhundem together with another woman who had been convicted of being a sorceress.

On the advice of her relatives, Dorothea went to see her son Friedrich, who lived in Welschen Ennest , after her sister von Bilstein was arrested . However, that was interpreted negatively. On August 31, 1590, Kaspar demanded from Fürstenberg's mother-in-law in a “hideous, unauthorized letter” that the “evasive judges from Bilstein” be executed. This draws the link to the rumor about the poisoning of Kaspar's wife. Another person accused of sorcery, Anna Kromen from Benolpe , accused Dorothea Becker in September 1590, under the agony of torture , of having forged a plan with the Kuisischen zu Viedermule ( Wirme ) and Agatha Stammes to poison the Drostin and the Drosten . Dorothea Becker was apparently arrested on the basis of this statement.

Steadfast despite torture

On November 3, 1590, Dorothea Becker and her niece were embarrassed for the first time. But neither of them knew anything about the torture. In this witch trial against Dorothea Becker (Dorothea ab Hardt), Henneke von Essen appears as a witch judge in Kaspar von Fürstenberg's diaries. On November 20, 1590 Dorothea stood before the Bilsteiner Neck Court with Anne Schwermer and Jacob Faust from Rahrbach . The latter was sentenced to death, Anne Schwermer acquitted, but a new court date was set for Dorothea to answer the questioning points. On December 22, 1590, she stood in court again and was questioned. In January 1591 the lawyer Dietrich Rodinghausen was installed in the matter by the councilors of the office. He tried by all means to achieve a more severe torture of Dorothea. An astute lawyer, not known by name, who was entrusted with Dorothea's defense, knew how to prevent this. At the beginning of April 1591, Dorothea Becker asked Kaspar von Fürstenberg to be released and offered to go to another location outside of the country. However, new testimony stood in the way of their release. Anna Wulfrodt from Olpe , who was imprisoned as a sorceress, accused Dorothea and her sister Gertrud Schmand from Kirchhundem during interrogations on August 3 and September 4, 1591 of sorcery. Even in a comparison with Dorothea on September 10, 1594, she stuck to her statement. Another witness was Anna, the wife of Hans Eberdts from Kruberg . She said she had seen Dorothea twice about six years ago at the crossroads between Bilstein and Benolpe on the dance floor. During a confrontation, Dorothea knew how to defend herself well, so that the witness finally stated that she may have only seen a shadow. Dorothea's defense attorney dealt critically with all witness statements and their credibility and came to the conclusion that all later accusations of Dorothea Becker from the first false statement by Johann Fronen from Saalhausen and the chatter and shouting that grew out of it among small and large, pious and indecent, or otherwise the devil's deceit and imagination would have arisen. He came to the conclusion that the defendant was not cleansed by her oaths alone, but that all evidence had also been invalidated. Dorothea Becker had already been brave, sharp and serious enough, but had known nothing of the person she was accused of and purged (cleaned) herself with. Dorothea had meanwhile turned to a higher instance, the appellate court in Arnsberg or the official office in Werl . The verdict was finally passed on her case at the end of January 1593, and she was released in February 1593. In 1595, Kaspar von Fürstenberg campaigned for the Electoral Cologne office to ensure that Dorothea Becker was allowed a safe stay in her home town.

Another fate

The happiness about the release of Dorothea Becker was soon clouded by the arrest of her husband Franz Abhardt in January 1597. He was accused of infidelity in the collection of taxes in the Bilstein office. With the intercession of Kaspar von Fürstenberg, the elector Ernst von Bayern , who was staying in Arnsberg, was released, albeit on payment of a fine of 3000 guilders. On February 7, 1597, Johann Landknecht, the son of his predecessor, was appointed as judge in Bilstein, which led to a dispute between him and Franz Abhardt. After various unsuccessful attempts by Kaspar von Fürstenberg to reconcile the two, this only succeeded on Franz Abhardt's deathbed. The same died on February 5, 1600. Dorothea Becker, his widow, probably died in May 1609 in Bilstein.

literature

• Günther Becker: The witch trials of Dorothea Becker gnt. "Die Richter'sche" 1575 to 1593 . From files in the Kirchhundem municipal archive. Edited by the Becker clan community. Dortmund 2003.
• Family letters Becker Kirchhundem (2). Edited by the Becker clan community. Dortmund 2003.
  • In it: Günther Becker: Dorothea Becker, called the Richtersche (around 1535? - 1609).
• Alfred Bruns: The diaries of Kaspar von Fürstenberg . Part 1: 1572-1599. Part 2: 1600-1610. Münster 1985.
• Alfred Bruns (arr.): The diaries of Kaspar von Fürstenberg . 2 vol., 2nd edition. Münster 1987, DNB 551101571 .
• Monika Hunold, Monika Klasen: Dorothea Becker. Gone through the fire. Historical novel. Reconstructed from facts about the Dorothea Becker witch trial. 2013, ISBN 978-3-944157-07-8 .
• Klemens Stracke: When the pyre blazed. From the witch craze in the Bilsteiner Land . In: Voices from the Olpe district. 73rd episode, 1968, pp. 139-175.
• Otto Höffer: The witch hunt in the office of Bilstein 1576-1608 . Regesten. In: Schieferbergbau-Heimatmuseum Schmallenberg-Holthausen (Hrsg.): Witches - jurisdiction in the Sauerland region of Cologne. 1984, DNB 850489350 , pp. 119-136.
• Magdalena Padberg: An extraordinary witch trial. Strobel, Arnsberg 1987, ISBN 3-87793-020-4 , p. 187.
• Franz Ignaz Pieler: Caspar von Fürstenberg's life and work according to his diaries. Also a contribution to the history of Westphalia in the last decade of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century . Paderborn 1873, p. 99f. (online at sammlungen.ulb.uni-muenster.de )

swell

• Kirchhundem parish archive. Holdings: Archiv Vasbach. D 928. Intus: witch trial. /. Dorothea Becker, wife of Franz von der Hardt.